


Ghostcam Chobo

by ghostcamchobo



Series: Ghostcam Chobo [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gaming, Slice of Life, Video & Computer Games, ghostcam chobo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2134479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostcamchobo/pseuds/ghostcamchobo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny Johnson is your everyday gamer with an astronomical score to settle; and we're not saying "score" in the numerical sense. This unlikely hero who leads a rather average life is given the task of a lifetime to save TWO worlds from certain destruction from virtual invaders. However, he should be lucky that he is not alone. Being guided by a quasi-vampire (the creator of this second world) who goes under the name of "GMO", Johnny has to gather his friends to battle alongside him in conflicts between various forces of evil; with each duel forcing Team Chobo to get one step closer to finding the true enemy behind it all. It's a story of friendship, action, pop culture references and transformation sequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Checkpoint 1: The New Legend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> World Records, annoying relatives, crushes, and drivers in a rush to go nowhere.

“Hey, John! How’s that World Record going?” Aria, who happens to be on her shift at the Overground, asks the overly focused John.

John smirks in confidence.

“Looking pretty good. Currently recording this on my camcorder and nothing, not even you can stop me now!”

Aria quickly attempts to “lightly” shoot down his streak of pride before his ego inflates to a massive size and states the following.

“You DO realize that once you obtain this World Record, provided you do, you’re gonna have to defend it; and it’ll probably won’t last long considering the original champion is literally behind you watching.”

“Wait...what?!” asked John in concern, but also fright.

“Hey, girl.”  
“Hey, K-Ruse! How’s it going?”  
“Great, actually. Just came here to play some Thrillzone 3 and put up some new record times...and watch John fail to get my record on Yarimax Terminal 88.”  
“Whoa, Kay. Might want to lower that ego of yours.”  
“Why? It’s not like he’s gonna get it or anything.”  
“He was about 700k away from taking it last time I checked.”

“134k, as of now! I might as well finish it right now, considering that you’re here to berate me, ‘Ruse!” John aggravatedly updates the duo.

“Yo, Johnny Boy. Chill. I’m just stating the obvious. It’s all in friendly competition, ‘member?” K-Ruse quickly corrects.

“Friendly competition...riiiiiight. Right, indeed.” John says with a sarcastic tone to his voice.

After a flurry of sentences were exchanged, a bystander, who happens to be John’s close friend, chimes in with another score update, minutes later.

“Just 34k to go! C’mon, bro! You got this!” Vinny exclaims.

Seconds after Vinny announces the current score, John’s phone begins to vibrate in his pocket. He refuses to reach for it, for it could make his World Record run meaningless. No less than ten seconds later, Vinny’s phone begins to vibrate. He then pulls out his phone, only to see a common annoyance to both John and Vinny on the screen...John’s cousin, Jen-E; who is oddly not DJing at a club nor a fan of gaming. But, alas, Vinny picks up.

“Hel-”  
“Get my cousin on the phone, please.”  
“Can’t. He’s REALLY busy and you might mess up his flow.”  
“What flow?”  
“Uhhh. You probably wouldn’t understand, Jen.”  
“Probably one of those obnoxious games again, huh?”  
“...Yeah, I guess you can say that.”  
“Vincent Blanche Anderson The Fourth, get him on the phone NOW.”  
“You see, I was trying to solve this like an adult, but you just HAD to call me by my full name. But, seeing as that is impossible, sure.”

Vinny then puts the phone next to John’s ear, and without hesitation…

“What do you want?”  
“The ‘rents want you to come home now.”  
“Sod off, don’t you have a gig or something?”  
“No, I don’t. But I’m being serious. You need to go home. That worthless game needs to have a rest as well.”  
“Implying I need rest. You need a well-cultured brain. But, tell ‘em I’ll be back in five minutes. I have two lives left and I have no intention on wasting them.”

John turns to Vinny and with the quickness says…

“Disconnect me from that Scrandy.”

“Will do, my man.” Vinny replies in compliance and hangs up.

With John regaining his slightly lost focus, Aria looks over at the game.

“No pressure, love! You got this!”

And with those words, John’s heart skipped a beat. He’s only a few seconds away from claiming his first World Record alongside his best bro, his rival, and his crush.

Oh, yeah. About Aria, right. You see, she may be the average female employee at your game store, but she is MUCH more than that. Being born to Egyptian royalty (and many years of it, at that), she is a princess in civilian disguise. Fan of crop tops and anything doused in cyan, she is a total sweetheart, a thing of beauty, if I, the narrator say so myself. She’s also quite good at rhythm games like Trance Stance Revolution.

The narrator clears his throat.

Anywho, the words lingered and echoed in John’s head like a music box, and he was pumped to close the coffin and extend it for the next challenger.  
“And...he got it!”  
Pause.  
“Zoooop!” John lost one of his two remaining lives; seconds after beating K-Ruse’s record.

“Looks like I have to play a little harder. “Little” doubling for a pun AND emphasis!” K-Ruse taunts.

“Shut it.” John quickly replied.

John tries to maintain his focus, but the thought of his parents getting angry at him closed in on him. However, Aria’s motivational cheer pushed those thoughts away. Ten minutes pass and John has pushed the score to a desirable, but high amount; coming in at a whopping 6,358,500 points, in comparison to K-Ruse’s previous 5,235,765. John rises from the seat planted in front of the machine and stands next to the arcade’s owner, Sir Jamie.

“Give it up for Johnny Johnson, your new Yarimax Terminal 88 World Record champion!” Sir Jamie announces to the crowd of spectators.

The arcade then became a sea of applause for John, but he looks over at Aria and smiles at her.

Aria winks back.

Cue the doki-dokis to John again. K-Ruse then approaches John to congratulate him.

“Yo, Johnny. Good stuff up there. But, just this once, and only once, I’m gonna let you keep it.”  
“C’mon, ‘Ruse. No need to go soft on me or anything. You’d most likely beat my score before Vinny and I come back tomorrow morning to help Sir Jamie and his wife sort things out in the back.  
“Naw, man. I’m just gonna lighten my load and put it on you; but not in THAT context.  
“I wasn’t even thinking of it in that context, sis. In fact, I…” 

John’s phone begins to vibrate.

“Oh, frickle pickle! Gotta jet!”  
“Relax, bro.” Vinny chimes in. “I’ll give you a ride home so that Jen can shut her flaps faster.”  
“Thanks, man. I’m glad I have a bro like you.”  
“You know it.”

The duo exit the establishment and get into Vinny’s Neptune Starstorm and pull out with the quickness. 

“So, Johnny, any games you’re excited to see in a few months?”  
“Hmmm, well, there’s Skuldgrills Plaudits and Vacated 4 Late 3…”  
“There’s no way Valvuh’s getting that on the market, no matter what the internet does to persuade them.”  
“Stop shooting down my dreams, bro!”  
“Just stating the obvious.”  
“Going on the K-Ruse route, aren’t you?”  
“Naw, not really.”  
“Fiiiiine. What about you? I assume they’re all gonna be shooters and stuff like that.”

A car beeps behind them.

“Hey! Red light, asshole! … Ahem, for once, no. I’m not as big with shooters as I used to be. Trickshotting got boring and stuff like that; filled with BK Scrandies to the max. I’ve started getting back into fighting games, considering that the Overground has a big community for them.”  
“Sure does.”  
“Also, what is this with you and Aria?”  
“Me and Aria? What, bro? Nooooothing at all.”  
“Good joke, but nobody’s applauding. What is it, really?”  
“Okay, fiiiine. I have a sliiight crush on her, okay?”

John’s heart skips a beat and the car begins to continue progress.

“Ohh, maaaaan. This is gonna be great. Describe your feelings about her, would you kindly?”

John’s heart rate increases rapidly and thinks to himself…

“Oh, dammit.”  
…  
“Alright, then. I just think she’s really pretty, talented, intelligent, and all of that radtacular stuff. She’s just perfect in so many ways.”  
“Willing to not use her like an object of your command?”  
“No. That’s just messed up to use a person at another’s will. I’m not that kinda dude; you should know that!”  
“Then we’re all good here. Sadly, the school year is coming back soon...”  
“I know. Total bummer.”  
“...Which means we totally have to find some fun way to end the summer.”  
“Ha! That rhymed.”  
“Any ideas?”  
“Don’t ask me, I have none.”  
“We’ll probably get one by tomorrow morning.”  
Minutes later, they arrive at John’s house.

“Thanks, dude. You saved me from almost twenty minutes of walking.”  
“No problem, man. See you back here tomorrow morning at ten. Gonna stop by Jaggerdale on the way to the Overground.”  
“Got it.”

John makes it to the front door and sticks the key in and turns it, and of course, gets inside; and no longer than, let’s say, five seconds later, Jen-E comes downstairs to scold him.

“So, here’s the “scrandy” who was supposed to come here about half an hour ago! Give it up! Woohoo!” Jen-E exclaims loudly.

“Yeah, real funny. Sometimes, I regret being known as your second youngest cousin.” John replies at the peak of his annoyance.

“Oh, come on! At least your ‘rents aren’t here! They went out to a family dinner.” Jen-E says as she attempts to lighten the mood. 

“Goooooood.” John sighs with relief.

“But, I ordered pizza to celebrate my cousin’s first World Record!”

John expands his eyes in disbelief. 

“Whoa, man. How’d you know about that?”  
“Aria texted me about it.”

John’s...ah, you already know what happens.

“O-Oh. That’s pretty rad.”  
“It’ll be here in 30 minutes.”  
“Rad. I’ll be upstairs.”

As John goes upstairs to his room, he senses a feeling in his head. A sharp feeling, more specifically. Seconds later, a voice emerges internally. 

“John. Become the hero. Become the savior.”

John regains consciousness.

“Become the hero? Become the savior? What the hell?!”

John continues progress upstairs and into his room.

What will become of this young man by the end of this night? We don’t know. But that can be a start to something MASSIVE.


	2. Checkpoint 2: The New Legend -Part 2- or “There But for the Grace of Mod Go I”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pizza and a hero's awakening. Things are picking up, it appears.

John looks among his game collection to see which one is going to get him bored enough to sleep, and after seconds of browsing, stumbles across Chiller is Cheddar Cheese. Seconds after, his phone begins to vibrate, and it just so happens to be K-Ruse.

“Hello, K-Ruse.”  
“Yo, Johnny Boy! Aria and I want to know if you want to go out and see a movie tomorrow after you and Vinny are done with helping Sir Jamie?”  
“Not really sure yet, but I’ll let you two know when we walk out. What time are you two willing to get there?”  
“Around five.”  
“Alrighty. We’ll see what we can do. Hopefully it’ll take an hour.”  
“Gotcha. Smell ya later, dude.”

K-Ruse hangs up and John picks up his controller, when five seconds later, the bell rings.

“Oh, come on! I’m still on the main menu here!” John yells, mildly aggravated.

“Hey, John! The pizza’s here!” Jen-E announces loudly.  
“Figures.” John quickly replies.

John picks up his phone and makes his way downstairs to the kitchen.

As he left, a man suddenly uncloaked next to his bed. He had a hood covered over his head and a stick to help him retain his posture. He begins to speak to himself.

“So this is the chosen one’s room. Interesting.”

He pulls out a notepad, and takes down various details of the room; such as his CD collection, stacks of manga, and gaming posters.

“This is the person we’re looking for, disciples. He could be the leader required to save our universal way of life. I shall visit him once he retires.”

He then cloaks above his bed and plans to remain stationary in that position until John falls asleep; and just in time for John’s return to his room.

“Alright, NOW I can start.” John says with relief.

John pushes the start button to hop into his game, he navigates through the menus with great speed and puts himself into the game as if he was the protagonist. After a few seconds, he picks up where he left off before he left for the Overground; the boss fight on Mission 7. The mysterious man with the hood watches him intensely, looking at his fingers glide across the black controller as his character performs combos and parries with his sword. The mysterious man is impressed with the amount of skill that he possesses for such an obscure game, and begins to take notes on such a feat. Seconds later, he receives a party invite from a guy named SlAzE Vincent; or as we already know as Vinny. John is too fixated to respond right now, for he wants to achieve that AAA rating he sought long for. Around, let’s say, fifteen seconds later, the mysterious man thinks to himself, regarding John’s focusing abilities.

“He does not let anything bring him to a halt. A great quality for me to take note on before the observation.”

John is just mere seconds away from taking down the target. He has not been hit yet, and is showing signs of determination to finish his enemy on the spot, leading the man to take down another observation; but this time, on his attitude.

“I see. A man with a constantly gleaming ray of hope in his eye, and the determination to slay what needs to be expunged. Interesting.”

John delivers the final hit and button mashes for his life. He wins the clash, and smirks upon doing so. He waits anxiously to see the result, hoping that it ended in his favor. A loading screen passes by and the score adds up; and on his screen came a big “AAA” in red.

“Yes! About time! Now to get back at Vinny and check up on what he wants.”

The hooded figure had enough, for whatever reason. Perhaps he had all the information he needed? Was he getting bored? Whatever it was, he was determined to put an end to it. He snapped his fingers together and within a second, every light and electronic in the house, including phones, were turned off simultaneously. He snaps his fingers again, but this time, knocking out John; Jen-E, luckily for good reason, was not affected. John was now completely unconscious, and the man begins his strike into his dreams.

Five minutes later, John wakes up; but in a world that is colored entirely black with a blue grid pattern. There were no limits as to where he could go, for it was as open as a gladiator colosseum. He begins to look around and pant frantically, for he is truly confused as to why this is happening and as to what is going on. He then looks up at a hooded figure suspended in midair, beginning his descent onto the ground. The hooded figure walks up to John and slowly removes his hood. After doing so, John hopped back in fear, due to his lack of facial details; such as black holes for his eyes and his mouth. That, and he had an antenna ripped straight from a mobile phone in the 90s attached to the right side (left, in John’s perspective) of his head. He began to speak.

“Welcome, Chosen One.”  
“”Chosen One”?! What the hell is this?! Who are you?!”  
“That, I have no time to tell you.”  
“What do you mean you have “no time” to tell me?!”  
“Listen, kid. Both of our universes need the help, and you’re the first step to building a super team to do so. I understand this is so sudden, but we need you.”  
“Not unless you tell me your name and your intentions!”  
“Fine. My name is Mod The Great. I’m the overlord of the Virtual World; currently being corrupted by an evil entity named Mainfr4me. He has been spreading chaos across the virtual universe and is planning to attack your world and your civilization and alter the way everyone lives, forever. You can be the leader everyone needs to save both of our worlds from this terror.”  
“Interesting. What do I have to do?”  
“Find the other twelve chosen champions and bring them to my attention and fight alongside them to stop the invaders and Eldritch Abominations that break through the rift to destroy what belongs to the human race. Extend your arm. Either one will do.”

John extends his right arm and Mod slaps a blue bracelet-like object around it.

“This is your transformation bracelet. It also doubles as a way to communicate with me and all of your other squadmates in times of danger, or when you need to exchange information about important targets with them. Don’t even bother on taking it off; for it is embedded on you until all of this is over, or at some point the author stops updating this series.”  
“Well, then. What does this do BESIDES communication?”  
“Transform you into your V-Suit. That was the very first thing I mentioned within the last few sentences; and now, I’m getting you to see it in action. Say “Execute, Impulse!””  
“You’re telling me I have to be a magical gi-”  
“JUST SAY THE DAMN WORDS!”  
“Alright, jeez! Execute, Impulse!”

John is now equipped with a body of armor; colored in multiple shades of blue with flame decals on it. He also has a sword on his back, reminiscent of the protagonist in that game he played before getting knocked out into this “dream”. His hands were covered in long black, fingerless gloves and his head was covered in what would be a helmet from his favorite shooter. His lower body had black pants made for quick movement, and his feet were covered in metallic shoes with rocket booster beneath the soles. Now, he was ready for anything.

“Duuuuude! This looks badass! I regr-”

“Round one! Begin!” yelled Mod from the top of his watchtower.

“What?! I JUST got into my armor and you want me to fight already?!” John asks panicked.  
“Yes. I personally think that you’re ready for anything.”  
“Okay, then...are they set to any particular difficulty?”  
“Normal.”  
“Alright, this’ll be a breeze.”

John unsheathes his sword and prepares himself for the onslaught that he is about to face.

“Come at me, I’m ready!”

The test enemies run towards John faster, now that he beckoned them to strike. John quickly checks behind his back to see if more were coming, and lo and behold, there were more coming.

“Oooookay. Maybe not.”

He brings his attention to Mod.

“I thought this was the first round, man!!”  
“It is.”  
“Bull, I tell ya! Bull!”

A test enemy goes in to pounce on John, and with the quickness, John cuts the enemy in half. Then, the rest of them caught up. He begins to swing his sword (katana, more specifically) around to mutilate multiple enemies at once. Upon mere seconds, he noticed the horde of enemies grow smaller and smaller with each one defeated. Mod begins to smirk from his balcony and exclaims…

“Yes, yes! This is what a true hero is like!”

John, just like earlier, was intensely focused and kept on taking down enemies with minimum damage done to him. After a while, he started to show fatigue and another test enemy tries to hop on him while he’s not at his best. This time, they actually land and begin to bonk him on the head with their fists. He throws the adversary back into a group of other enemies, and continues to take down the others. Upon recovering, Mod announces a motivational morale boost.

“Excellent work! You’re almost done with the test enemies I sent ya!”

John smirks and begins to spin around rapidly with the sword extended to create a whirlpool of death and split bodies and cuts down what would’ve been the last of them.

“Ha! That was not so bad! Bring on the next wave!” John exclaims with pride.

“I’m afraid I can’t.” Mod replies.

“Why not? I thought you were gonna give me more.”  
“There’s an enemy in the real world you have to scout out and find. That’ll be your round two. But for now…”  
“”For now”? “For now”, what?!”

John is quickly lifted by Mod’s power and flings him out of the arena “gates”; but in real life, he just flew right through the glass window next to his bed. He then wakes up to see himself in his backyard, looks around, and goes back to sleep with little memory of what just occurred.

Tonight, along with the day ahead, was going to be quite the long one.


	3. Checkpoint 3: Let's Go Outside(?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this first edition of "Johnny and Vinny Save The Day (Or Something)", Johnny comes to terms with the fact that he's a hero. I think that sums it up well enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GHOSTCAM CHOBO IS BACK AFTER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO BE THE LONGEST HIATUS EVER! (Or so I proclaim with over exaggeration. )
> 
> After being caught in the middle of school work (and little to no free time to work on GCho's storyline), Checkpoint 3 is finally out to the masses! I'm currently typing up Checkpoint 4 and writing down Checkpoint 5 in my notebook! Both of them will be out in two weeks, maybe less. 
> 
> Other than that, enjoy this chapter! Shout out to a special friend who looked this over with much love.
> 
> -Robert / riztcymbals

Six hours pass and our protagonist finally wakes up from what would be a long fall from a second floor bedroom window; only to be greeted to by his close friend, Vinny.   
  
“Dang...how long have I been here?” Johnny questions, as if he was talking to himself and not the person in front of him.   
“Long enough.” Vinny replies.   
  
Johnny is startled from his and quickly lets out a statement showcasing such an emotion:  
  
“Whoa! How long have you been here?!”   
“The last 300 seconds.” Vinny says in a tone that is fit for a smartass; which, if you ask just about anyone who knows him, is true because he _is_ one.   
“Perfect…”   
  
Johnny then proceeds to look up towards the sky. His head slowly turns right in the direction of the giant hole on the side of his house; specifically coming from his bedroom of all places. Upon this discovery, Johnny questions the situation:  
  
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”   
  
“Iunno, but all I can say is that your room got blown open; as if a human being flew through it,” Vinny chimes in.  
“That human being is probably me.”   
“Yup.”   
“All I remember is that I met this weird mage with a cool mask and antennas coming out of his head. Please don’t tell me the same thing happened to you.”   
“Well, I DID have visions, but that’s it.”  
  
An awkward silence came over the two of them. 

“We’ll finish this discussion in the car.”   
“Alright…” A flustered Johnny responds, as he gets up to follow Vinny to his _Neptune Starstorm_.   
  
Minutes later, the two boys are on their way out to Game Overground in Framingfish, having their normal on-the-road conversation; this time, about Johnny’s “dream” from last night:   
  
“So, can you describe the whole scenario to me?”   
“All I can say was that a watch was attached to my wrist, I transformed into an armored badass with a katana, I slayed way too many enemies for a “tutorial”, and was told to “save both worlds” within the course of about less than five minutes. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”   
“Hmm...that’s odd; the least he told me was that I was a “chosen one among many” and some ridiculous stuff that didn’t even make sense to me. Virtual Dimension Suits, saving the world, blah blah blah, what-frickin’-ever.”   
“And it’s the last day of summer! I don’t need to worry about this!”   
“Right. Besides, we’re almost there; so you’ll be seeing Aria soon.”   
“This traffic jam we’re about to pull into says otherwise.”   
“Damn kids looking for their school supplies and all th-”   
  
Vinny spots something on fire from afar.   
  
“Oh, shiiiiiiit. That’s Queen Burger! It’s on fire!”   
“Like that one basketball game? Yeah, I wouldn’t be shocked about that; considering how much oil they use.”   
  
Vinny delivers a playful, yet serious punch on Johnny’s left arm.   
  
“My longtime friend is in there! We need to detour!”  
“But don’t we…”   
“Who cares about your “but don’t we”?! We need to get her outta there!”  
“We’re stuck in traffic, bro! What do we do?!”   
“Ditch the ca-...Naw, let’s just wait.”   
  
Meanwhile, in another location, not so far from their current position, we hear the screams of a frightened Queen Burger employee, crawling away from a masked man in a trench coat. In this particular worker’s left hand is their desperation weapon; a fire extinguisher. In case I wasn’t able to establish who this person is, it’s Keri; covered in sweat and feeling overwhelmed by the scalding heat of the fires that set Queen Burger ablaze.   
  
“Get away from me!”   
Keri aims the fire extinguisher at the Masked Man and fires away at his mask. The Masked Man is not effected by this and continues to trudge towards her in a slow, yet intimidating manner.  
  
“It’s no use...”   
  
Feeling a sense of hopelessness, Keri remains stationary, leaning against the tiled wall behind the counter.  
  
_Dammit_ , Keri exclaimed in her head, _I guess this is the end for me..._   
  
Suddenly, the sound of a door being swung open dominated the sound of the cackling fire. Johnny and Vinny vault over the counter in a position behind that of the Masked Man.  
  
“Not so fast, trench coat!”   
  
The Masked Man picks up a nearby barrel to the right of him. 

“Get away from Keri, or I’ll tear you a-”   
  
And the barrel hits Vinny in the stomach upon the Masked Man throwing it.   
  
“N-never mind” murmured Vinny, as he fumbled around on the ground in pain.  
  
The Masked Man looks over to Johnny and starts to march towards him slowly; ripping off a pipe from the wall to use as a means of intimidation.  
  
“You...Chosen One” muttered the Masked Man in suspicion.  
“Dammit! What do I do?!” questioned Johnny in a state of panic.  
  
Suddenly, a voice resonates in Johnny’s head.  
  
“Remember your training, child...”

Johnny extends his left hand in response to the voice.  
  
“Execute: Impulse!”  
  
Armor clings onto Johnny’s body, as he prepares himself for a fight. The Masked Man charges at him, but Johnny dodges to the side. Wishing he could counter this, Johnny begins to consult Mod, The Great for assistance.  
  
“Hey, MTG, what are my moves?” Johnny asked the voice being transmitted in his helmet.  
“Oh, deeeear. Lemme look in these 12,000-plus folders...”   
“How long will this take?!”   
“I’m looking at two minutes, I swear. Just hold out.”   
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?”   
  
...   
  
“Riiiiight. Grab your friend, save the girl, and get away from the area” suggested Mod.   
  
And Johnny does exactly that; he runs towards Vinny by the cash register and drags him out as the Masked Man advances ever so slowly. Johnny makes it to Keri and escorts her out of the emergency exit. Despite the chaos, they were able to make it to the safety of the outdoors as the Masked Man possibly burned to death within the once stable restaurant. They begin to formulate a plan for certain escape.   
  
“Hey, bro,” Johnny asked, “will you be able to drive?”   
“Kinda. My head is in another world right now...” mumbled Vinny.   
“Now is not a good time for quasi-dated game references!”   
“No, I’m being serious.”   
  
“I can drive,” exclaimed Keri as she dangled her keys to the two boys, “where to?”   
  
A loud scream bellowed from the distance.  
  
“Oh frick! That sounds like Aria! We need to hurry!” Johnny shouted in panic.  
“Get in!” Shouted Keri as she beckoned the boys.   
  
Following such a command, Johnny and Vinny get in Keri’s _Phoenix Myriad ‘96_ ; a hand-me-down convertible that she once got from her parents when she reached the legal age of driving and, of course, got her license. She revs the engine, backs up the car and starts to search for the fastest way on the road. Suddenly, as they drove off...  
  
BOOM!   
  
The Masked Man charges through the emergency exit door, loosening the door off of its hinges.  
  
“COME BACK HERE!” The Masked Man exclaims in rage, as he wants to have another go at the heroes-to-be.  
  
Meanwhile, back in the car...  
  
“We’re safe now,” Keri assures the boys, “he’s very slow when he’s not predatory.”  
“That’s great, but now we have TWO to deal with,” Johnny reminds the driver and his best friend.  
  
Johnny’s phone begins to vibrate.  
  
“Incoming call from Sir Jamie...”  
  
Johnny pulls out his phone to answer.  
  
“Bro, I need your help to push this maniac out!!” Sir Jamie yells with the force of a trillion rams charging into obsidian.  
“On my way,” Johnny replies with willingness to back his word.  
  
“Your moves have been uploaded. Check ‘em” Mod, The Great told Johnny.  
“Who are you?” Questioned Sir Jamie in confusion.  
“Have no fair, Sir Yorkshire, just a friend of his.”  
  
...   
  
“Fair enough. Come quick!”  
  
Sir Jamie hangs up and Johnny looks through his move list displayed on his visor. Being intrigued by what he can do, he returns his attention to the road. Speaking of their current progress...  
  
“We’re almost at the U-turn. Any plan of attack?” Keri asks in preparation.   
“Just drop us off and we’ll take care of the rest,” Johnny replies with confidence.  
“But, my car!” Vinny yells with a sense of utmost concern.  
“Relax, man. It’ll be taken care of.”   
“What if that masked asshole took it apart?!”  
“Well...car insurance would help.”  
“Right, Keri.”   
  
Keri makes the U-turn to get on the other side of the road. She begins to floor it up the hill.  
  
“Luckily, we have a clear path ahead of us,” Keri notices.  
“Yeah. I find that pretty odd; especially after what Johnny and I stumbled across earlier,” Vinny chimes in.  
“Right,” Johnny added.  
“Well, do you guys have any last words before I drift onto that pavement in front of The Overground?”  
  
...   
  
“Nothing.”   
“Will I ever get my car back?”   
  
Keri drifts the car onto the pavement.  
  
“Alright, boys! Knock ‘im dead! Or something. Iunno.”  
  
Johnny and Vinny leave the vehicle with the quickness and storm through the doors. They run up the stairs leading into the store itself. Johnny takes a look around the area, not seeing anyone in sight.  
  
“Aria! Sir Jamie!” Johnny yells towards the cashier’s counter.  
  
“We’re by the TranceManiaX machine!” Sir Jamie yells from a distance.   
  
Johnny rushes over into the dark corner next to the balcony door with said TranceMaxiaX machine. Upon getting there, both Aria and Sir Jamie are cornered off by the second Masked Man. The Masked Man turns his attention to Johnny.  
  
“Too...late.”   
  
The Masked Man punches both Aria and Sir Jamie through the machine, and to make matters worse, destroying the wall behind it; quickly taking this battle, as some would say, outside. Johnny, as you would imagine, is furious by this particular action.

“That’s it! You’re dead to me!”  
  
Johnny lunges towards the Masked Man with his fist extended.  
  
“Impulse Fist!” The Masked Man, upon getting punched, is sent into a conveniently placed brick wall on the balcony.  
  
Johnny starts to walk towards the, currently downed Masked Man.  
  
“Sir Jamie, get behind me.”   
  
Sir Jamie begins to crawl towards Johnny and gets behind him. Johnny glares at the Masked Man, once more.  
  
“Oh ho ho...you must have the nerve to not just attack my friend, but my crush, too? Pretty gutsy, if you ask me.”  
“Why not? It’s fun to hurt people. Fun to make people sad.”   
“Dude, it’s wro-”   
  
The “woosh”-like sound of a rocket bellows in the distance. Johnny decides that this is a good time to step back.  
  
...  
  
BOOM! The rocket hits the Masked Man.  
  
_What the?!_ Johnny thought to himself. He then looked into the air as a pitch black silhouette flies through the air, winking at Johnny.  
  
“Wow...incredible,” Sir Jamie commented on the, ahem, assistance from above.  
  
_Who was that? Why did they wink at me? What’s with all that...fluff? I don’t under-...never mind_ , Johnny thought with a sense of major confusion. Given the fact that what’s done is done, Johnny, once again, walks up to the still downed Masked Man. He pulls out his sword from the back of his VDS and cuts off the Masked Man’s head.  
  
“That should do it. I mean, I did cut off his head, right?”  
“Correct,” Mod, The Great chimed in, “I wouldn’t expect him to get up. Pretty rare when they do, however.”  
“Awesome. I’m gonna go check up on Aria.”  
“As you wish.”  
  
Johnny begins to walk towards a groveling Aria.  
  
“Aria, it’s me, Johnny! You’re safe with me-”  
  
Vinny glares over towards Johnny.   
  
“Us. You’re safe with us now.”   
  
Aria does not respond.   
  
_Shiiiiiit! No. Nooooooo._   
  
“ARIA, WAKE UP! YOU CAN’T BE DE-”   
  
Aria puts her index finger on Johnny’s lips.   
  
“Shhhh, sweetie. I’m alright.”   
  
Aria, upon reassuring Johnny that she’s alright, notices the armor on him.  
  
“Why are you in that ridiculous armor?”   
“It doesn’t matter right now, and if it did, it would require a long story.”  
“Just...take me home. I’m scared, but I held out as long as I could.”  
  
“I gotta get my car ba-” Vinny begged, but was interrupted by a familiar voice from not long ago.  
“All taken care of. Had my friend tow it to your house,” Keri explained.   
  
Vinny sighs in relief.   
  
“Well, that got me in a good mood again.”  
“And on top of that, no damages were reported.”  
“Thank you so much, Keri. You’re the best.”  
  
Vinny envelopes Keri in a hug.   
  
“Anything for you, bro. That said, I gotta get back to Queenie B’s to steal from my manager’s pockets and start that YouSmearing fund for his funeral expenses! See ya!”  
  
Keri begins to walk towards the entrance near the counter.  
  
“Wait!” Vinny yells from his position.  
“Hmm?”  
“We maaaaaay need a ride home.”  
“Fair enough. Come along, my fellow warriors.”  
  
Everyone except for Sir Jamie follows Keri out of Game Overground.  
  
...   
  
“Well, damn. This is going to cost a ton to fix...and to think that we’re gonna be moving to Natiboro in a few months!” Sir Jamie exclaims, as he stares at the recently generated hole in the wall.  
  
Now, since I am the narrator of this story, I’m going to do you, and everybody else reading, a favor; by teleporting us to the scene after the long ride home.  
  
“Here you are, you two lovebirds. Come again soon...ish,” said Keri as they pulled up to Aria’s house.  
  
Johnny, who was sitting in the back seat with Aria, leaves through the door on the right; carrying Aria in his arms. Or, rather, slinging Aria’s left arm behind his neck and helping her walk.  
  
“Thanks a ton, Keri!”  
“Don’t mention it, man.”   
  
Keri drives off and continues her venture towards Vinny’s apartment.  
  
...   
  
“You do realize that I can stand on my own, right?” Aria assures an overprotective Johnny.  
“Riiiiiiight. Sorry ‘bout that.”  
“There’s no need to be sorry, cutie. You saved my life, and that’s never a reason to apologize.”  
“No problem, de-”  
  
Aria kisses Johnny on the cheek.  
  
“-ar,” Johnny finishes.  
“See you tomorrow!”   
  
Aria walks towards the front door of her house, pulls out her keys, and heads inside for the night.  
  
_Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow_ , said Johnny in a trance; still shocked from Aria’s most unexpected action. After waiting a bit longer, he begins to walk home; conveniently not as far as you would expect, just less than five minutes on foot.  
  
...  
  
“Incoming call from unknown number,” a voice bellowed from Johnny’s phone.  
  
_I’m going to assume that this is not important in the least_ , Johnny ponders as he ignores the person trying to call him. This hesitation was short lived, however, because his phone started to vibrate beyond normal capabilities; enough to actually cause bodily pain.  
  
“Yeeowch! Fine, fine, I’ll answer!”

...   
  
“Hello?”   
“Greetings, unsuspecting hero,” came from a mysterious voice.  
“Who are you?”   
  
...   
  
“Not important.”   
  
Johnny remembers the voice.  
  
“Aren’t you the owner of Rationale Online?”  
“Dammit, you blew my cover,” the not-so-mysterious voice replied, followed with a sigh, “but, yeah. I’m GMO.”  
“Oh my gosh, this is so-”  
“Don’t raise your hopes too high, man. This is important. Very important.”  
“Sure...w-what is it?” Johnny asked with a sense of fear and anxiety in his voice.  
“I need you to gather the other heroes of this realm.”  
“Whoa. Hold on just a second. “The other heroes”? “This realm”? I’m confused.”  
“Yeah. You’re not the only one who tells me that; but I can tell you that you’re already on a great start on finding these “heroes”. You interacted with two, got saved by another. Luckily for you, the others can be found quite easily within the confines of Pepperbroke High and Uxwood High, as well as other places around Alternate Massachusetts,” GMO explains in some depth.  
“Interesting. So...why are we gathering these “heroes”? Planning a house party of some sort?”  
“Man, I wish. But, you see, Rationale Online is in critical danger. You DO remember me mentioning that earlier, right?”  
“I don’t remember hearing someone like you telling me that, but I do remember that avatar with the booming voice did.”  
“Well, I’m about to blow your mind. I’m Mod, The Great.”  
“Grrrreat. Way to get me more confused.”  
“You’re welcome. However, if we’re gonna defeat Mainfr4me, we’re gonna need an army to stand up to him and his forces. And not only that, I have a feeling that my former boss is behind this.”  
“Man, I thought Mainfr4me was the big bad behind this!”  
“He is, but not the big, BIG bad. If there’s any person responsible for the virtual attacks in the real world, blame “him”. Those Masked Men were just the beginning of his eventual onslaught on humanity. To counteract this plan, we have to save this world along with Rationale Online’s world.”  
“This sounds ridiculous. Ridiculously difficult! How are we gonna do that?!”  
“I...Iunno. But, we’ll just go with it. Beat up all the invaders and come up with some wicked plan. Sounds good?”  
  
...   
  
“Sure. When do you want this team assembled?”  
“Hmm...”  
  
...   
  
“How about by June 11th, 2016?” GMO suggested.  
“You’re on.”  
“Excellent. Your first task is to talk to Protege. He’s the first one you need to recruit...or rather, the first one HE needs to recruit.”  
“Interesting,” Johnny replies as he walks up to the front door of his house.  
“Very. I’m gonna let you go. See you tomorrow morning.”  
  
GMO hangs up.   
  
...   
  
Oh dear, here we go...  
  
Johnny opens the door and heads inside for the night.  
  
[Execute Texting Interface]  
  
Johnny: Hey, brah!  
Protege: Hi xD  
Protege: Can’t wait to see you tomorrow  
Johnny: Same!  
Johnny: Unfortunately, GMO wants me to talk to you about something.  
Protege: Ah, this is gonna be interesting. What does GMO want from you?  
Johnny: Iunno, but she wants me to gather people to “save both worlds”.  
Protege: Well, I guess this means that you’re in my situation as well.  
Johnny: It appears so.  
Johnny: Wait a sec.  
Johnny: Are you the person who assisted me from earlier?!  
Protege: In the flesh like Kieren Walker!  
  
...   
  
Protege: Well, digitally, of course, given the medium we have for contacting one another. xD  
Johnny: Interesting. XD  
Johnny: Thanks a ton for that, man.  
Protege: No problem! It’s all part of my job. I mean, this is considered a job, right?  
Johnny: Iunno, I think you should ask GMO about that.  
Protege: Riiiiight. xD  
Protege: Speaking of GMO, what did she tell you?  
Johnny: That we need to form a team by June 11th of next Alternate Year.  
Protege: Fair enough.  
  
...   
  
Protege: I feel like we should warn the others. Y’know, in case they eventually get picked to join us.  
Johnny: Right. ouo  
Protege: And there’s no better time to start than tomorrow. We’ll gather in front of Pepperbroke’s main entrance before the first period bell strikes.  
Johnny: Deal. eue   
Protege: But for now, I’m gonna go to bed. Goodnight. uvu   
Johnny: Night, brah!   
  
Humans With Faults presents...Ghostcam Chobo.


End file.
